The departure of 2007 seniors and starters Lindsey Gray, Nikki Kaminskas and Ulrike Stegemann gives several players the opportunity to step into open roles on the outside, middle and right side, and the coaches are hoping to use the spring to see which players are the leading candidates for those open positions.

“The spring is a great time for new players in our lineup to develop and learn,” said head coach Bond Shymansky. “It is also a great time for returning players to fine-tune their skills. We have a dedicated group of seniors who are driving our team right now. They are hungry and have something to prove, so the spring season should be a symbol of things to come in the fall.”

The Yellow Jackets will see how far along they are when they square off against the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, March 29 in the team’s first match of the spring. They will then return to Atlanta to face the University of Florida the following weekend at O’Keefe Gym.

Tech will wrap up the spring with a pair of tournaments, the first coming at home against Winthrop, Georgia State and Jacksonville State on Saturday, April 12. The Jackets will then travel to the Great Lakes Center College Tournament in Chicago to wrap up spring workouts April 19.

“We are excited about keeping a high level of play every weekend, and know that we need to continue to challenge and push ourselves to become the team that we are striving to be this fall,” Shymansky added.